The truth about Eastern rehabilitation

Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services, Rishad Bathiudeen, is on record that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of the East have returned to their original places of habitation entirely on their own accord and this statement should help to put the record straight on an issue which has been highly misconstrued by some critics of the State including the LTTE.

Basically, the contention of these critics is that the IDPs have been forced by the State to return to the liberated areas of the Eastern Province.

That is, the displaced are being tyrannised into returning to their former homesteads and not being allowed a choice in the matter.

Whether they like it not they are being driven back to their homes with the aim of proving the point that State authority is a fact of life in these areas.

In other words, it is an entirely State-engineered process with the people exercising no free will whatsoever.

Minister Bathiudeen’s rebuttal of this baseless claim is, therefore, most timely.

The State is, no doubt, playing a huge role in the liberated areas of the East and is in full control but it is in no way coercing the IDPs into returning to their former homesteads.

This, the IDPs are doing on their own free will, as any displaced persons would do who nostalgically yearn to return to their homes, where no doubt, their hearts are.

The State and its agencies are only facilitating this return through the provision of transport facilities and, of course, providing all the resources and infrastructure necessary for resettlement and rehabilitation, as any responsible State would.

Yesterday’s ‘Sunday Observer’ provided a list of the Government agencies involved in resettlement and rehabilitation and it is all too obvious that a massive rebuilding of the once LTTE-terrorised areas is now underway.

In fact, the aim of the Government is to transform these areas which were wilting at one time under the blood-soaked paws of the Tigers, into bustling, productive towns. This is already taking place in townships, such as Sampur and Vakarai.

They would hopefully be developed as never before and when this process is complete, these areas would be closely integrated into the rest of Sri Lanka and be participating vibrantly in the country’s wealth-generating endeavours.

This is the blueprint which has been visualized for the rest of the East. In contrast to the LTTE’s tyrannical presence, the State would not be coercing the people of these areas into doing anything, but would be providing them with all the means to be productive citizens.

Those prone to scepticism on these achievements of the State need to only consider what UNHCR Country Representative in Sri Lanka Ameen Awad had to say on visiting the resettlement areas of the East.

He said that the resettlement and rehabilitation process of the region had reached international humanitarian standards and that the IDPs are going back voluntarily and happily. Need we say more on the successes achieved by the State?